Tuesday, October 21, 2008

What's behind the pixels in this TV commercial?

by Chris MaGee

I'm currently reading (and greatly enjoying) Jasper Sharp's new book "Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema" (although with all the photos included it's a tough book to bring on the subway with you), so when I saw this Japanese TV commercial I thought there was a bit of synchronicity at play. If any of you have ever seen Japanese porn (which I never have... um... yeah) then you're aware of the fogged out or pixelated patch that covers any pubic hair or penetration. Well, reading Jasper's book I've learned it has a name: the bokashi. Now it looks like the makers of this commercial have covered up whatever this young lady seems so happy to be thrusting her finger in and out of with a bokashi... but what is it?

It turns out it's a new toy called Tuttuki Bako a virtual box allows you to physically interact with digital characters like "a panda bear or a small figure" or gives you the experience of touching a "lake... a girl’s face or a slime ball." Kind of neat, although I could easily see this same technology used so that you could poke something else into this box, but then again you'd have to figure out a way to clean it afterwards. Whoa! Did I say that?